rty, cherishes his own convictions, and preaches
them boldly. The traveler who may make only a brief stay in Paris will
find the representatives of all the professions spending the whole
evening in the criticism of the last books from the Liberal Party, and
of the rejoinders of their orthodox opponents. Now, for the first time
since the seventeenth century, a state of general religious inquiry and
earnestness exists. It is not difficult to interpret this quickening of
national thought on theological questions. It means that France will
have no small share in the decision of the great points at issue between
evangelical believers and their critical, destructive antagonists.

A half century ago the Reformed and Lutheran churches were sunk in
skeptical formalism. They were divided into two parties, neither of
which possessed spirit enough to defend its position, or grace enough to
ask God for his blessing. One adhered to the cold Supernaturalism of the
eighteenth century, the other to a system of philosophical Deism. The
reduced state of piety was largely due to the oppression suffered at the
hand of the state. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which deprived
Protestants of both religious and civil liberty, occurred in October,
1685, and it was not until 1808 that the law of the 18th Germinal once
more recognized their rights, and placed Catholicism and Protestantism
on an equal basis. The whole interval was marked by a stagnation of
fearful character. At the time of the Revocation, the Reformed church
had eight hundred edifices and six hundred and forty pastors, but when
the restoration occurred it had but one hundred and ninety churches and
the same number of pastors.

The apostasy of the Protestants went to a fearful extent. For example,
at the very time of the infamous worship of the Goddess of Reason, a
pastor and his elders carried their communion plate and the baptismal
vessels to the mayor, to have them melted down for the nation.
Improvement began about 1820. There were but three Protestant chapels in
Paris, and the services were dull and unattractive. To the late Frederic
Monod belongs the imperishable honor of commencing the renovation by
means of his little Sunday school. "Never will the traces of his labors
be effaced," says M. de Pressense, "for he it is to whom we owe the
first furrows in the vast field which now we rejoice to see white unto
the harvest." A domestic evangelical spirit, embracing the mos